Habr4h ago

У тебя телефон? У меня КПК! История предтечи смартфонов

То, что мы сейчас называем КПК, PDA или по-русски «наладонником», зародилось из двух параллельных миров. Первый мир – это мир фантастов и исследовательских лабораторий, где мечтали о персональном компьютере будущего. Второй – мир программируемых калькуляторов с простейшими дисплеями. В какой-то момент эти два мира встретились Еще в конце 60-х годов XX века Алан Кей, работавший в Xerox PARC, сформулировал концепцию Dynabook. Это должен был быть портативный компьютер размером с блокнот, с плоским дисплеем, графическим интерфейсом и ориентацией на обучение. По сути, Кей описал не столько КПК, сколько идеальный персональный мобильный компьютер. Что-то среднее между ноутбуком, планшетом и электронным учебником. Но технологии того времени были абсолютно не готовы к такой роскоши. Процессоры слабые, память дорогая, дисплеи примитивные, аккумуляторы тяжелые. Поэтому Dynabook долго оставался мечтой. Но в 80-е от мечт перешли к делу.

https://habr.com/ru/companies/beget/articles/1041346/

#КПК #наладонник #palm #PDA #Pocket_PC #коммуникатор #psion #messagepad #iphone #nokia_9000

У тебя телефон? У меня КПК! История предтечи смартфонов

То, что мы сейчас называем КПК, PDA или по-русски «наладонником», зародилось из двух параллельных миров. Первый мир – это мир фантастов и исследовательских лабораторий, где мечтали о персональном...

Хабр
Show threadKroc CamenMay 26

As they say, "Aww Sh!t". The unfortunate side of these 25-30 year old machines is that the plastics are failing. With me using mine so much, the door to the Compact Flash slot cracked. I used some epoxy resin to repair it, but whilst trying to wriggle the door free from being glued in the open position, the whole thing tore apart :(

Thankfully, it doesn't prevent the device from working as the sense switch for the door is in the corner where it pivots, and the stylus is on a spring-lock.

I've put close to 60 hours of writing into this device since starting the book (https://camendesign.com/nomad) and I'm pushing to get the new chapter finished for the end of the month.

I wish we had replacement cases for these, but the community is so incredibly small we can't afford to have these re-manufactured, if we could even get the design recreated correctly :/

#worldglass #psion #retrocomputing #writing #writerdeck

Show threadThe Last Psion | AlexMay 26
Fullscreen #Psion MC400.
Show threadThe Last Psion | AlexMay 25

OK, we're getting somewhere.

The EPOS machine is now running #EndeavourOS. I'm an Arch man anyway, so this was a quick way for me to just get something running.

I'll try Kalpa again another time. I'm sure it'll be an easy fix, but right now is not the time.

Next I need to build a custom version of MAME for Arch using the latest git checkout. It's got some new shiny EPOC32 things! But I won't be compiling that on the EPOS unit. This thing has an Apollo Lake Celeron in it. That's plenty fast enough to run a few copies of MAME and a presentation, but compiling MAME would take a day, even with only the #Psion emulation.

Show threadthe roamerMay 25

@Kroc

I had a Psion 3a and loved it; it was a true personal organiser. I also did programming on it and used it for simple database tasks at work. I also had the 5mx --- though I loved the 3a more! As you say, the Psions were (are!) unsurpassed designs both in hardware and software. Delighted you are using yours so productively in 2026.

We owe thanks to David Potter, who made it a commercial reality.

#Psion DavidEPotter #whyisgooddesignsorare

The Last Psion | AlexMay 25

My attempts at preparing for #RetroFest2026 have not gone smoothly.

  • Hinge repairs didn't take on a rare #Psion Series 3a. Clearly I got the JB Weld mix wrong, or the tubes I've had for 8 years are going off. I've bought more JB Weld.
  • The same rare 3a probably needs a new flex, but it's a screen construction I've never seen before. It looks like Psion glued more bits together... It might have to stay broken for now.
  • EPOS unit (Apollo Lake processor with iGPU) running #openSUSE Kalpa won't start any graphical session. In a fit of impatience, I wiped the machine and started again. Clean build of Kalpa has the same issue. Now trying Tumbleweed to see if it's an openSUSE issue before trying other distros.
  • Once I've got something running on the EPOS unit, I need to install a custom build of MAME with as many ROMs as I can find, and get a slideshow running with LibreOffice Impress.
  • Ikôn (WinCE machine) battery completely dead. The Ikôn won't start without a battery.
  • netBook power socket might be dodgy. Might need to open it up again and check the soldering. Hopefully just needs some contact cleaner.

Plus I'm struggling to make decisions on simple things, like how to use a new flight case with pick-and-pluck foam to optimally arrange Psion gear for transport. And I haven't finished the slideshow yet.

This is meant to be fun, right?

#RetroFest

mathieuiMay 23
Question for maybe @thelastpsion; did anyone take the time to reverse the Psion 5 word file format? It seems quite different from what’s in https://doc.psion.info/books/siboepoc16/page/psion-word-file-format (also xxd is telling me that some things inside the file format itself are… localized strings 💀 )
#Psion #Psion5 #Retrocomputing
Psion Word File Format | Psion Documentation Project

Word files can be encrypted with a password. Encryption affects only the header and data record type...

The Last Psion | AlexMay 21

Got my French #Psion 3mx out of its box the other day, only to find that the screen was showing nothing but black. After checking the obvious (contrast), I assumed it must be the screen flex cable.

Weirdly, continuity on the flex seems fine. It might be a dry joint at the other end, but reflowing the solder did nothing.

For now I've swapped the screen and bezel with one from a hinge-challenged 3mx I had in bits. That'll get it working for #RetroFest next week. I'll put the old screen aside for another day - hopefully some day I'll be able to return it to its original machine.

#retrocomputing

The Last Psion | AlexMay 18

#CTRAN update:

I've been looking at ways to neaten up the code while making it more robust and testable ("make it right").

After starting down a couple of dead ends and having a conversation with a mate, I decided to split the class parsing method (_GetClass) into two - _BuildLocalClass and _BuildExternalClass. While there's a huge amount of crossover between Psion's local category (.CAT and .CL) files and external (.EXT) files 1 , they don't share any keywords inside their classes. Each keyword had a "if external" or "if not external" check. I never loved this, but it was the only way I could see of getting it working. Of course, the obvious solution was staring me in the face.

Now the check only happens at the start of a class being parsed:

if _FileType = ooExternal then
begin
_ClassList.Add(_BuildExternalClass(tokline));
end
else begin
_ClassList.Add(_BuildLocalClass(tokline));
end;

I also changed _ClassList from an array to a TList, which should be a little more memory efficient when adding classes. I might do the same for elements within classes, too.

These probably won't make any noticeable speed difference, but it does improve code readability and should make it easier to test.

1 : Local category files define classes for processing by CTRAN, while external category files reference and summarise pre-compiled classes.

#Psion #SIBOSDK

Kroc CamenMay 18

I don't have a screenshot of the error, (because failure after a long frustrating day) but I somehow managed to write C++ code that not only compiled, but produced a sequence of x86 instructions so cursed that it hard-crashed Virtual Box. That's not supposed to be possible, right? Like, the Guest system isn't supposed to be able to influence the Host :P

#psion #programming #cpp